The ligurian riviera

Liguria is located in the north of Italy, between the French Riviera, Piemonte and Tuscany. The Ligurian sea, mild weather, sceneries and good food are well known worldwide. This is the land of the ancient Ligurians who founded towns here before the Romans. Their home land was from the now Tuscany border down to the south of France. Along its coasts people from the north countries like the Vikings and from the south like the saracens settled down. The inland is full of history and places to visit and enjoy due to powerful Ligurians and Genoese families which used to travel and trade all over the world and build castles and mantion houses which now, in many cases, are nice hotels and good restaurants. It was really here, along the Ligurian coasts and its villages, that some English gentlemen started to discover travelling and how to be a tourist and in this respect, this is really the place for every type of tourist: from exclusive places like Portofino or Sanremo to really nice campings along its sandy coastal beaches, to the wonderful mountains sceneries with ancient typical villages.

The main factor influencing the weather in Liguria is its location between the mountains in the north and the sea in the south.

In Winter it is extremely rare to have temperatures under zero.

The summer is marked by mild temperatures

The rocky coastline of Liguria is does not give much room for cheese production, but imports from other regions of Italy have been incorporated, most notably the use of Parmigiano-Reggiano for the making of Pesto. Sheep's milk Pecorino and also Ricotta is also used. Ligurian desserts include Pandolce Genovese, a sweet bread made with candied fruit, raisins and nuts, and sweet pizzas made with walnuts, chestnuts and candied fruit.
The wines of Liguria are tailor made to the suit the region's cuisine, some grown within spray-shot of the crashing waves. Reds include the fruity Rossese di Dolceacqua (DOC), a Dolcetto known as Ormeasco, and the dessert wine Sciacchetra Rosso. The white wines of Liguria are rightly praised as some of the most unique, with the dry Cinque Terre and sweeter Sciacchetra (both DOC) being very popular and excellent with any seafood. The straw-yellow and very aromatic Colline di Levanto (DOC) is just being discovered by wine lovers outside of Liguria. Sprits range from the citrus based Limoncello Ligure to walnut-infused Nocino and the ever-popular Grappa, still made at home in many areas of Liguria.

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